Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e22236 doi: 10.3897/BDJ.6.e22236 Taxonomic Paper A global checklist of the Bombycoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera) Ian J Kitching‡, Rodolphe Rougerie§, Andreas Zwick |, Chris A Hamilton¶, Ryan A St Laurent¶, Stefan Naumann#, Liliana Ballesteros Mejia§,¤, Akito Y Kawahara¶ ‡ Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom § Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Sorbonne Université, Institut de Systématique, Evolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), UMR 7205 – CNRS, MNHN, UPMC, EPHE, Paris, France | CSIRO - Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra, Australia ¶ Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, United States of America # Hochkirchstrasse 71, Berlin, Germany ¤ CESAB, Centre de Synthèse et d'Analyse sur la Biodiversité, Aix-en-Provence, France Corresponding author: Ian J Kitching ([email protected]), Rodolphe Rougerie ([email protected]) Academic editor: Yasen Mutafchiev Received: 13 Nov 2017 | Accepted: 08 Feb 2018 | Published: 12 Feb 2018 Citation: Kitching I, Rougerie R, Zwick A, Hamilton C, St Laurent R, Naumann S, Ballesteros Mejia L, Kawahara A (2018) A global checklist of the Bombycoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera). Biodiversity Data Journal 6: e22236. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.6.e22236 ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:937DDBF7-10F3-4700-B188-227F33800216 Abstract Background Bombycoidea is an ecologically diverse and speciose superfamily of Lepidoptera. The superfamily includes many model organisms, but the taxonomy and classification of the superfamily has remained largely in disarray. Here we present a global checklist of Bombycoidea. Following Zwick (2008) and Zwick et al. (2011), ten families are recognized: Anthelidae, Apatelodidae, Bombycidae, Brahmaeidae, Carthaeidae, Endromidae, Eupterotidae, Phiditiidae, Saturniidae and Sphingidae. The former families Lemoniidae and Mirinidae are included within Brahmaeidae and Endromidae respectively. The former bombycid subfamilies Oberthueriinae and Prismostictinae are also treated as synonyms of Endromidae, and the former bombycine subfamilies Apatelodinae and Phitditiinae are treated as families. © Kitching I et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 2 Kitching I et al New information This checklist represents the first effort to synthesize the current taxonomic treatment of the entire superfamily. It includes 12,159 names and references to their authors, and it accounts for the recent burst in species and subspecies descriptions within family Saturniidae (ca. 1,500 within the past 10 years) and to a lesser extent in Sphingidae (ca. 250 species over the same period). The changes to the higher classification of Saturniidae proposed by Nässig et al. (2015) are rejected as premature and unnecessary. The new tribes, subtribes and genera described by Cooper (2002) are here treated as junior synonyms. We also present a new higher classification of Sphingidae, based on Kawahara et al. (2009), Barber and Kawahara (2013) and a more recent phylogenomic study by Breinholt et al. (2017), as well as a reviewed genus and species level classification, as documented by Kitching (2018). Keywords Anthelidae, Apatelodidae, Bombycidae, Bombycoidea, Brahmaeidae, Carthaeidae, Classification, Endromidae, Eupterotidae, Phiditiidae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae Introduction Bombycoidea is one of the most charismatic and well-studied moth lineages. The superfamily is mosty diversified in the intertropical region of the globe and currently includes ten families and more than 500 genera (van Nieukerken et al. 2011). Bombycoidea includes many model organisms (e.g., Bombyx mori Linnaeus, 1758, Manduca sexta Linnaeus, 1763, Hyalophora cecropia Linnaeus, 1758) that serve pivotal roles in studies on genetics, physiology, and development (see Roe et al. 2009). They are also economically important (e.g., pests, sericulture) and are frequently used as educational tools due to their large body size, attractiveness and ease of rearing in captivity (e.g., atlas moth, Attacus atlas (Linnaeus, 1758) and luna moth, Actias luna (Linnaeus, 1758)). Despite their central role in science and outreach, a comprehensive, vetted global checklist of Bombycoidea taxa is lacking, and the taxonomy of the group has been unstable. Existing taxonomic lists have focused on particular groups (e.g. Sphingidae, Kitching and Cadiou 2000), or faunas (e.g. Neotropical Bombycoidea, various authors in Heppner (1996)), but a comprehensive update of the entire superfamily is much needed. The morphology-based phylogenetic studies of Minet (1991) and Minet (1994) were seminal for the modern classification of Bombycoidea. Subsequent molecular studies proposed many new intrafamilial backbone phylogenies of Bombycoidea (e.g., Barber et al. 2015, Breinholt et al. 2017, Kawahara and Barber 2015, Kawahara et al. 2009, Regier et al. 2008a, Zwick 2008, Zwick et al. 2011) and the higher classification of the superfamily has changed significantly, but some parts remain inadequately resolved. At lower levels, there have been only a relatively small number of phylogenetic studies focusing on particular A global checklist of the Bombycoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera) 3 genera (e.g., Ylla et al. 2005, Rubinoff and Le Roux 2008, Kawahara et al. 2013, Ponce et al. 2014, Rubinoff et al. 2017), while new species descriptions continue to accumulate at a very high pace. In particular, in the family Saturniidae nearly 150 species or subspecies have been described per year over the past 10 years on average, thus strongly affecting our current understanding of the diversity of these moths. Other families have received less attention from taxonomists, and can still be considered understudied with many new species awaiting discovery and/or description. Figure 1. Simplified family-level phylogeny from Zwick et al. (2011). White branch indicates the uncertain placement (i.e., relationship to other families) of the Bombycidae. The closely related family Lasiocampidae is used as an outgroup to root the tree. Photographs at tips are representatives of each family: Saturniidae - Argema mimosae (Boisduval, 1847); Bombycidae - Bombyx mandarina Moore, 1882; Sphingidae - Xylophanes tersa (Linnaeus, 1771); Phiditiidae - Phiditia Möschler, 1882 species; Carthaeidae - Carthaea saturnioides Walker, 1858; Anthelidae - Anthela Walker, 1855 species; Endromidae - Endromis versicolora (Linnaeus, 1758); Brahmaeidae - Brahmaea paukstadtorum Naumann & Brosch, 2005; Eupterotidae - Jana eurymas Herrich-Schäffer, 1854; Apatelodidae - Apatelodes torrefacta (Smith, J.E., 1797); Lasiocampidae - Lasiocampa terreni (Herrich-Schäffer, 1847). 4 Kitching I et al Here, we present a best estimate on the current state of the taxonomic diversity of Bombycoidea, based on the compilation of published nomenclatural acts as well as the consideration of recent phylogenetic work on the superfamily. We have constructed a comprehensive table of bombycoid taxa, including their synonyms, authors, and publication years. Much of this information is erroneous in the literature, and here we comprehensively clarify the taxonomy of the entire superfamily, although we also acknowledge that our checklist may still contain errors and will inevitably become outdated with the expected continued progress in the systematics of these moths. We also present a simplified higher-level phylogeny of Bombycoidea (Fig. 1) based on recent published studies that reflects the taxonomy presented here. Our checklist formally recognize 10 families, 520 genera, and 6,092 species. Materials and methods In this section we provide a list of conventions and abbreviations used, as well as a brief account of the main resources used to compile this checklist for each of the ten families treated. Conventions and abbreviations This Checklist uses the original orthography of all taxon names and does not apply gender agreement (Sommerer 2002). The following abbreviations and terms are used in the Checklist: Code: the Fourth Edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999). comb. nov.: an new combination of a species into a genus. comb. rev.: a revived combination of a species into a genus. "Comb. rev." is often misinterpreted as meaning a "revised" combination. However, the term refers specifically to the reinstatement of a previous combination (i.e., a revival, "reviviscens"), not a revised combination, which is a more general concept. incertae sedis: of uncertain taxonomic position. incorrect original spelling: an original spelling of a name that is deemed incorrect under Articles 32.4 and 32.5 of the Code. infrasubspecific: a name that ranks lower than a subspecies; such names are not regulated by the Code. junior homonym: of two homonyms, the later established, or in the case of simultaneous establishment the one not given precedence under article 24 of the Code. A global checklist of the Bombycoidea (Insecta: Lepidoptera) 5 nomen dubium: a name of unknown or doubtful application. nomen novum (new replacement name): a name expressly established to replace an already established name, most commonly a junior homonym. nomen nudum: a name that, if published before 1931, fails to conform to Article 12 of the Code; or, if published after 1930, fails to conform to Article 13 of the Code; an unavailable name, with no type specimen. nomen oblitum: applied after 1 January 2000 to a name,